Product Details

• Actors: Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal, Lisa Kudrow, Chazz Palminteri, Kresimir Novakovic
• Directors: Harold Ramis
• Writers: Harold Ramis, Kenneth Lonergan, Peter Tolan
• Producers: Billy Crystal, Bruce Berman, Chris Brigham, Jane Rosenthal
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: August 17, 1999
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (145 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00000JGPD
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #130,676 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #56 in	Movies & TV > Comedy > Comedy Stars > Billy Crystal
  #78 in	Movies & TV > Comedy > Comedy Directors > Harold Ramis

• For more information about "Analyze This" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

• This is item 1 in The Analyze This Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Cast Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal together in a film and it should be a sucker's bet as to who's going to be funnier and who's going to give the more nuanced performance. Somehow, though, De Niro walks away with most of the laughs in Analyze This, a buddy action-comedy about a mob boss (De Niro, natch) suffering from panic attacks who makes a nebbishy shrink (Crystal, natch) an offer he can't refuse--actually, it's not really an offer, it's a command. The good doctor is forced to help the gangster get in touch with his feelings. Had the brilliant TV series The Sopranos not underscored how thin and watery and shticky director-cowriter Harold Ramis's approach to such potentially rich material actually is, the movie--a hit in theaters and De Niro's biggest film ever--would seem more fresh and kicky. De Niro's definitely a hoot as the ever milder menace, and Crystal actually concentrates on giving a credible performance opposite the acting legend (alas, he doesn't turn his character's fear of his patient into inspired comedy, as Alan Arkin did in Grosse Pointe Blank). The conclusion devolves into the requisite gunplay, and Chazz Palminteri and Lisa Kudrow are criminally wasted as an opposing mob boss and Crystal's fiancée, respectively, but overall, it's breezy fun. --David Kronke

From The New Yorker

You can see the jokes coming well in advance, but you still laugh uncontrollably. Robert De Niro is the Mafia boss who is having panic attacks at crucial moments, and Billy Crystal is the mild, bored little shrink who becomes his doctor and friend. What makes the film so effective is that the two men form a real bond-each fulfills some need in the other. Director Harold Ramis's experience is evident in almost every scene; he doesn't push the farce too hard. With a superb performance by Joseph Viterelli as the boss's embarrassed right-hand man. Written by Kenneth Lonergan, Peter Tolan, and Ramis. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of sparks, few fireworks in Mafia comedy, March 22, 2002

By	Matthew Horner (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Analyze This (DVD)

Once again we have a movie centered on the Italian Mafia. There have been so many movies, both serious and comic, on this subject that we tend to know in advance every possible outcome. The twist here is rather clever. Mob boss Paul Vitti [Robert De Niro] is having an emotional crisis that is interfering with his work. He confides in his right-had man, Jelly [Joe Viterilli]. Coincidentally, Jelly's car was rear-ended the day before by a prominent psychiatrist, Ben Sobel [Billy Crystal]. They go to Sobel's office, where Vitti demands to be cured of his problem. Sobel agrees to treat him. It's not as though he has much of a choice.

Sobel now has a number of problems to deal with. His profession deals with people's emotions. Vitti is from a world where real emotion is thwarted by a macho code of behavior. Only Jelly knows he is seeing a shrink. For the rest of the mob to know would bring dishonor. Sobel is also about to get married, or he thinks he is. What he quickly finds out is that working for Vitti means he is on call twenty-four hours a day. This ensures that the wedding day will be a disastrous one. Soon the FBI is investigating Sobel for gang related activities. His life is seriously disrupted, yet he secretly finds it exhilirating.

There are several good sight gags in Analyze This. When Sobel runs his car into the rear of Jelly's Lincoln, the trunk pops open to reveal to all the world a man tied up inside. Jelly's efforts to distract Sobel are hysterical. There are also several clever dream sequences, which play havoc with Freudian psychology.

This is the first picture in a long time where the talented Billy Crystal is always in command, even in his scenes with the great De Niro. His character gives him an opportunity to stretch his comedic abilities. De Niro has lately been stretching his own enormous range. This is his second comedy in two years, the first being the much better written political satire Wag the Dog.
The only time he falters is in the first scene in which he cries. It's a rather startling display, but once you get used to it, it's suitable to the part he is playing. In any case, it is quite clear that he is mastering the comedy genre, which many actors claim is the hardest one to play well.

Do not go into Analyze This expecting that, since it has an extraordinary cast, it is going to be somehow superior. Go in expecting only to be entertained. I imagine you will enjoy yourself if you don't try to analyze it.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's great go and see it, April 9, 2000

By	Amir Ghodrati (Missouri) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Analyze This (DVD)

This movie has great performances all around. It is very funny. I liked seeing Robert DeNiro cry. How could anyone dislike this comic look into the mafia.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Terrifically funny and smart, June 29, 2000

By	Mike Freed - See all my reviews

This review is from: Analyze This (Spanish) (Sub) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Basically, "Analyze This" is a one-line gag flick ('hey, did you hear the one about the mafia kingpin who went to a shrink?'), but funny and very GOOD performances from Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal really make this film hang together.

In particular, DeNiro is a hoot as Paul Vitti, a mafia don who's struggling with some internal angst. He's entirely believable as both the tough-talking, boastful, powerful don AND as the person who's struggling with some emotional problems. The internal struggle between these two sides of his character are beautifully played out by DeNiro. In Vitti's first session with Dr. Sobel (Crystal), we see DeNiro go seamlessly from needy patient to laughing wiseguy to frightening don...all in the space of about two minutes. Brilliant stuff.

Crystal is, as always, funny as Dr. Sobel, a shrink who at first takes Vitti as a "patient he can't refuse", then actually risks his life to treat him. The high point of Crystal's performance is a very funny scene in which he dons a shiny silver suit and does a dead-on imitation of a wiseguy (complete with lines like "you know...that THING" that are straight out of 'Goodfellas').

If "Analyze This" has a major flaw, it's a staged confrontation at the end of the movie between Vitti and his rival mobsters, which ends in Vitti declaring publicly that he's leaving the mob. In real life, he'd make it about as far as the door.

And the relationship between Crystal and his fiancee (Lisa Kudrow) is more than a little strained and unrealistic; what girl would put up with having her wedding day interrupted not just once, but twice, by gangsters (once by a murder)?

Flaws aside, "Analyze This" is a very funny movie, but any fan of mob flicks (me! me!) will be especially delighted.